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tv   [untitled]    October 29, 2012 12:00pm-12:30pm PDT

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the first big learning i had when i launched the business. we have stay at home moms that are out running their own parents anyway and not mind picking things up for people. young professionals looking to supplement their incomes nights and weekends. san francisco is an extensive place to live. if they could make a few extra bucks on the side to help supplement their rent, then all the better. we have this amazing group of retirees that love the idea of staying active, helping other people in their community, so we look for a wide variety of individuals to get involved in the network. one story i will share is up a woman named amy. she posts on a monthly basis and hires a group to go out with her to the tenderloin in san francisco and help feed the homeless. it is something she is incredibly passionate about, and she realizes the network as a resource and to offer support in
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fulfilling that passion. there is just story after story about the ways that we are engaging all levels of the community, and it is really exciting to see the type of community-building that can happen when you connect people in a neighborhood. >> sharing is not a new idea. it has been around for a long time, but something all our companies have in common is we use technology -- in our cases, an online platform -- that actually lowers the barrier -- the barrier of entry so people across the social spectrum can engage. you do not need to have a second home in a fancy condo buildings in this city. you can have an extra count that you want to rent out, and you can find access to travelers from all over the world who also do not have the resources to spend money on a $200 hotel
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bill who want to say on your couch, and that is really democratizing travel, not just access to travel, but also access to the tourism economy that flourishes in the city. >> i just want to address the technology point really quickly. we try and emphasize the human aspect of this, whether it is on the website or whether it is through the iphone app. other people use a device that we built, that lets you share a car more conveniently by letting the richer unlock the car with their smartphone. even with that, we really try to connect the people who are sharing because a lot of people to accept rentals just with the
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kit and may never meet the people they are sharing with. we tried to encourage the parties to get to know each other, trying to just display your interest or so many things i can think of that our websites due to show who this person really is. they take their photo. i think part of this is about trust, and it is about letting -- the things we do to encourage trust and the things you do as a responsible member of the sharing community to insure you are doing your due diligence as well. when two people -- first off, the one example i want to bring is that a lot of our car owners find a handful of people they like to share with regularly. usually, both on the richter and owners' side, it is most convenient if you find a few
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people you like -- both on the renter and owner side. it is almost like fractional ownership of a car. secondly, we do community events to bring people together, so you can meet people whose car you could be sharing and you did not actually realized that they could make it available because they list it at their workplace and not their house. those kind of surprises are fun. we are seeing a lot of our members throw little ad hoc things, which is awesome to see. better to have a grass roots than organized by the company. >> that touched on a really interesting thing. i was wondering -- how do cities -- what role do they play in your rollout plans, and how important is community management to the process? let me start with you, jessica. >> for us, we have chosen to launch city by city.
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we feel that is really important because it lets us take the time needed to build up a great community of people sharing cars. that lets us find great cars, educate the owners, educate the renters, and ensure there is the right balance and variety of cars. if you look on the site in san francisco, you will literally see cars all over the place. it is all over the bay area. you are seeing cars sharing happening in places it never had before. we worked with the city to see if there were any ways we could get out the word. we hope to work with existing programs or be added as an additional transportation solution. in general, we like to involve the city and city leaders in our announcement of coming to market, and it has been working really well. >> i know you have community managers all over the globe.
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what's going on there? >> airbnb goes to network effects. we are all over in -- we are already in 19 cities all over the world. we just provide the tools on line, and local residents throughout the world decide they want to be part of the movement and part of airbnb and list their homes on the site, and local travelers decide they want to go somewhere and look for those. the amazing thing is it is really driven by the global community. we just like to help that along by contributing to community events and the ups and educational experiences to help host become better hosts, and quite often, actually, we have events where the travelers who are in town can attend. one such event is happening this thursday. inh -- t
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san francisco have nominated their favorite destinations, experiences, local businesses, and nonprofit organizations in their neighborhoods, and we will be presenting a guide to san francisco based on this. in terms of the role the city is playing, i think the biggest role in city could play would be to make compliance with existing laws and regulations more clear and more easy for local residents. london, for example, is doing a great job of this in anticipation of the olympics. they have run out of hotel rooms, and they realize that the whole purpose of the olympics was to create economic development in some of the most underserved areas of the city, and they are not getting that. we will be working
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collaborative lee to come up with a solution to solve that problem. they have created a wonderful website that clearly states what you need to do to be compliant. >> that is what christopher is doing in london then, right? >> yes. >> one more question for jay, and i think we should open up for questions from everyone here. tell us what existing city initiatives -- you know, this -- the schering economy working group will interface with or connect with, and how does it fit in with existing strategic goals and plans of the city? >> i think our director of environment in our city has issued a goal for 2020, being mission -- emission free, carbon
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neutral. that is something that when you think about the economic impact of these new business models, it can contribute quite greatly to that. i am going to answer the question a little bit differently -- i have been inspired by this space considerably. there's a lot more opportunity. cars, so many assets we have in our society. as a city, we own buildings, cubicles, museums, golf courses, so much that we have -- >> yes, but it is our property, right? >> yes. that is a very good point. stewards of these resources, and they are often underutilized resources, so how do we improve access to those? there is a lot to learn from this that could be applied to the public comments. >> thank you. let's open it up.
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do we have a microphone for people to come to? ok, we will just it old school. if you have a question, raise your hand, and speak loudly. concise questions will be greatly appreciated. >> [inaudible] >> did everyone here that? ok. >> something that is really amazing about the sharing economy is it is being
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pioneered in cities. cities exist because of sharing because it is more efficient and more productive to collaborate and share resources, and that is something we are seeing, that our biggest markets are big metropolitan cities, which is different when you look at the tourism industry throughout the world. i mean, of course, we will be in the beach towns, but, the real innovative factor here is it is happening in cities, and it is because the way we work and live is different. we are more transient, mobile, flexible. we do not stay in the same job for our entire lives. the way we live differently dictates not only how we travel, but also how we make money. as i travel for work, my apartment is bacon in san francisco, and someone else can come and visit it. i think cities are where a lot of the opportunity lies, and why we are proud san francisco is the first city in the world to
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recognize this and to work collaboratively with all of us. >> [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> what is that? >> this is one thing we have thought about not necessarily actually creating a new currency, but as far as our platforms, sharing resources. i do see a future in being able to create a system where you can kind of have some type of credit or there is some type of sharing and bordering among those services. as we all grow, i know that our company was born that way. we were a originally funded by
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money we made off of airbnb sublett our apartment -- subletting our apartment, which was managed by taskgrabbit, and we would use peer to peer, schering. it was very much the bread-and- butter, and i think we will see that nationally expand, though it may not be its own initiative. >> yes, i will just add to that that you are one of the largest -- one of the largest time banks in the country is here in san francisco, the bay area community exchange. could start using that to mobilize volunteers, so i encourage you to check it out. another thing to think about is public banking. it is not necessarily a different currency, but it would be a different way of handling
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money. for instance, san franciscans could do it. a good but the money instead of in wells fargo or whatever, a private commercial bank, into a bank that is owned by us, and that the interest goes into city treasury, and we extend credit to ourselves. there's really innovative things that are happening, and that our public banking laws being lodged in a number of -- i think it is, like, 13 states right now. very innovative things happening. in the back. >> there are a lot of assets you are sharing that are really great at the grassroots level and bottom-up, but there are also things that are done the need to be shared such as public transit that cannot be done bottom-up and have to be done top down. i wonder is there a way a sharing economy can create those projects, or do we have to rely on residual benefits of bottom-
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up activity like reducing car use? >> the question is -- there are a lot of grassroots bottom-up activity, sharing resources, but there are also opportunities to take macro approaches like public transportation, for instance, and how we can get some of those opportunities going. >> i will take this. i think that is a really good question. i think there is a role both bottom-up and top down, and i think it is a conversation we're going to have in the working group to get these ideas that are coming from our community and from leaders in the space. there are so many ideas we may not be hearing. we are inviting all of you with some of these great ideas. i think it is the first set. obviously, it will not be easy to make some of these changes, but being part of the dialogue is very important. >> i would check out mesh labs,
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which looks at that pretty closely. who else? ok. >> [inaudible] i know a little bit about the cars and trucks, but i understand there might be some legislation that creates opportunity for people who make food in their own kitchens. is that just a rumor? >> hopefully, all of you heard that question. let me just try to repeat it. i think the question is about what are the regulations around here to peer food, some of the new micro on to buy nor opportunities like food carts, etc. -- micro entrepreneur opportunities. >> i think that is really forward thinking. looking at food trucks, we
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streamlined the permitting process to make that quicker and better and faster process. that was obviously a very open process to make sure we resolve some of the tensions with others in the space. i think what you are talking about are things like underground sf, which i would be part of. i personally think it is a great idea, but obviously, we need to protect public health, and i think it is an area for more discourse and look at how we manage that, how we ensure safety in our communities, get, allow for this micro entrepreneurship and innovation happening at an individual level where people may want to make jams or jellies or some of the cool idea about food -- >> chocolate. chocolate. >> [inaudible] there is legislation that has been introduced in the state of california called the california
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homemade food act. i am actually coordinating the campaign for it, and it would legalize the sale of certain home it but adams. come talk to me about it if you want to know more. >> that is great. we had a question in the front year earlier. >> [inaudible] >> great. the question is about the
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companies here in san francisco will be along with a working group or part of this because there are companies or other places that have satellite offices. anyone want to answer that question? >> i do not think we want to limit the voices that are part of the conversation. we need to think about it with a structure is it so we do not have a meeting upon meeting upon meeting, but how we get a lot of voices in, and maybe technology is an answer here. i am a big fan. >> [inaudible]
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i would love to hear from each one of you with the city could do in terms of regulation to help your businesses. we talked about the tax issue. what with each of you say is an issue the city could help with. >> i will start. one thing we would like to see is to make parking easier. we want it to be as easy to share your car as possible, and if you when your car and the renter cannot find a parking spot, that is an issue we need to solve. there are actually great models from around the world in terms of on street parking or some sort of system to not only encourage car owners to share, but also not discourage people from using private car sharing
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because parking is an issue. we have been piloting this a little bit, and we hope to actually see something come out around parking. obviously, the other issues we have discussed impact any of the schering economy companies. you could also see opportunities to educate the public or just gain awareness for the services through the city and existing programs. >> i forgot to repeat the question, but the question is -- what regulations to the company's what? >> that is a great question. we would love the city to educate themselves and help educate the rest of san francisco about what this is and defined it is something -- as something that is not a hotel. and create regulations tailored specifically to this activity and make sure that this definition and these regulations
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are applied consistently in the tax code, the administrative code, and the planning code, to make sure there is some coherence about how the activity is treated and regulated. >> i mentioned earlier, running around doing deliveries. some sort of collaborative consumption, schering economy parking permit, parking pass along those lines would be very helpful, as well as just generating awareness here in other cities -- for instance new york city -- the mayor did endorse utilizing companies in the sharing space. i am really excited to be here tonight working with the mayor's office because i think it is a tremendous step in the right direction. and the fact that so many collaborative consumption companies are born here. we, as a city, should really be
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the leadership model in the space. >> i think, for us, there are currently right now less direct regulatory concerns, but i imagine more will emerge. i think that legitimacy and credibility to create programs that the city can actually sanction these types of businesses because we are not 84 provider. our providers are not for operators. they are individuals leveraging a platform. really looking at those nuances, but also finding a way to make this credible. i think trust is a big issue in our community, and for people to understand the you do not have to use the hotel concierge or go on a doctor or to be safe in san francisco. >> i think our city leadership has learned quite a bit through this panel and through the
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previous discussion. for me, -- and i think for the rest of the folks in city hall -- there is a huge education component year. learning about these specific issues from these companies and other companies as well as our community members i think is a very valuable process, and being part of the conversation again and having that form of a working group, i think it will be really powerful to demonstrate leadership. we owe it to the community, and it is something we have to confront sooner or later, it is better we do this now. >> two more questions. right there. >> [inaudible] is city hall produce stand up when the push that comes? >> the question is -- is city hall ready to -- what was that?
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>> [inaudible] when it pushed back comes from the old economy. -- when the push that comes from the old economy. >> yes, just to get it on the tv. the question is -- will the city stand up when the push back comes from the old economy? >> i wish i could represent all city hall. i cannot. but i think that is part of democracy. there's always tensions. always other sites and perspectives we have to arbitrate and here are and figure out where that line is, how we actually negotiate that. that is part of the conversation. i do not think we should unilaterally just listen to whatever the schering economy companies are saying, nor should we do the same for the traditional companies. it is hearing both sides,
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understanding the different perspectives, a managing the risks, and seeing where as a city our values are and where we should be headed. >> can i add something? i would like to clarify -- this is not us versus them, new economy versus old economy. there is room for both of us. these are complete the experiences that someone would have in the old economy. the trick is figuring out what is different about this, making sure laws and regulations and policies apply reasonably to this new economy, and make sure that there is room carved out for both. >> thanks for making that point. one more question? >> [inaudible] i'm curious if this conversation about companies devoted to schering physical space.
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the idea of using or facilitating, seven commercial space for nonprofits and that sort of thing. [inaudible] are there any modalities for sharing their? >> the question is there's a lot of vacant commercial space that could be mobilized for civil society, so is there a way to do that? >> i know of one company, loose cubes. i'm sure there's others that many of you know there. >> i see mark in the audience there. do you want to explain what liquid space does? i think it answers the question, actually. >> [inaudible] [laughter]
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>> mark really got my attention recently. it launched a couple of months ago in san francisco and showed me his application on the iphone and made the statement that if we use all the commercial real estate that we have, we would not need to build another building in our lifetime. so then asked him if he could write an article, so be careful what you tell me. ok, so, i was told one more question. anyone else to close it out? in the back there. >> [inaudible] >
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i guess, what i'm wondering is where do you see opportunities in this area? one of the exciting things about this is actually how we are building trust between people. >> the question is -- what are the barriers around trust, and what are some of the opportunities, right? >> i can start. it is a great question. i think trust is probably the main barrier all of us face to get people over that hump of trying this experience for the first time. i think there is a major opportunity in trust and reputation-building for all of these collaborative consumption companies to work together. if you are a mentor and leave the place spotless and have been a good tenant, can you then rent a car on get around and bring that reputation with you so that people can